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The Midnight People
This remarkable anthology contains eighteen terrifying tales of the Vampire, that most dread horror of the darker world. In these macabre accounts, you will meet the ghastly creatures who, once dead, continue to live in their graves and drink the warm blood of the living. If you doubt the existence of these ghoulish spirits, the fluttering of your nerves will belie you.If fiends are your fascination, come and meet them in the form of a lovely young girl or an old - indeed very old - friend, in the snows of wind-washed Wisconsin or in the gruesome ruins of Greece. Come and be introduced...in eighteen eerie encounters.
255 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
About the author
Peter Haining
334 books99 followersPeter Alexander Haining was an English journalist, author and anthologist who lived and worked in Suffolk. Born in Enfield, Middlesex, he began his career as a reporter in Essex and then moved to London where he worked on a trade magazine before joining the publishing house of New English Library.
Haining achieved the position of Editorial Director before becoming a full time writer in the early Seventies. He edited a large number of anthologies, predominantly of horror and fantasy short stories, wrote non-fiction books on a variety of topics from the Channel Tunnel to Sweeney Todd and also used the pen names "Ric Alexander" and "Richard Peyton" on a number of crime story anthologies. In the Seventies he wrote three novels, including The Hero (1973), which was optioned for filming.
In two controversial books, Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800, was tried in December 1801, and was hanged in January 1802. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. A check of the website Old Bailey at for "Associated Records 1674-1834" for an alleged trial in December 1801 and hanging of Sweeney Todd for January 1802 show no reference; in fact the only murder trial for this period is that of a Governor/Lt Col. Joseph Wall who was hanged 28 January 1802 for killing a Benjamin Armstrong 10 July 1782 in "Goree" Africa and the discharge of a Humphrey White in January 1802. Strong reservations have also been expressed regarding the reliability of another of Haining's influential non-fiction works, The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack.
He wrote several reference books on Doctor Who, including the 20th anniversary special Doctor Who: A Celebration Two Decades Through Time and Space (1983), and also wrote the definitive study of Sherlock Holmes on the screen, The Television Sherlock Holmes (1991) and several other television tie-ins featuring famous literary characters, including Maigret, Poirot and James Bond. Peter Haining's most recent project was a series of World War Two stories based on extensive research and personal interviews: The Jail That Went To Sea (2003), The Mystery of Rommel's Gold (2004), Where The Eagle Landed (2004), The Chianti Raiders (2005) and The Banzai Hunters (2007).
He won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2001.
Haining achieved the position of Editorial Director before becoming a full time writer in the early Seventies. He edited a large number of anthologies, predominantly of horror and fantasy short stories, wrote non-fiction books on a variety of topics from the Channel Tunnel to Sweeney Todd and also used the pen names "Ric Alexander" and "Richard Peyton" on a number of crime story anthologies. In the Seventies he wrote three novels, including The Hero (1973), which was optioned for filming.
In two controversial books, Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800, was tried in December 1801, and was hanged in January 1802. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. A check of the website Old Bailey at for "Associated Records 1674-1834" for an alleged trial in December 1801 and hanging of Sweeney Todd for January 1802 show no reference; in fact the only murder trial for this period is that of a Governor/Lt Col. Joseph Wall who was hanged 28 January 1802 for killing a Benjamin Armstrong 10 July 1782 in "Goree" Africa and the discharge of a Humphrey White in January 1802. Strong reservations have also been expressed regarding the reliability of another of Haining's influential non-fiction works, The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack.
He wrote several reference books on Doctor Who, including the 20th anniversary special Doctor Who: A Celebration Two Decades Through Time and Space (1983), and also wrote the definitive study of Sherlock Holmes on the screen, The Television Sherlock Holmes (1991) and several other television tie-ins featuring famous literary characters, including Maigret, Poirot and James Bond. Peter Haining's most recent project was a series of World War Two stories based on extensive research and personal interviews: The Jail That Went To Sea (2003), The Mystery of Rommel's Gold (2004), Where The Eagle Landed (2004), The Chianti Raiders (2005) and The Banzai Hunters (2007).
He won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2001.
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November 9, 2025Placeholder Review - I am reading a bunch of Manly Wade Wellman and so pulled this off the shelf for a pre-read of "When It Was Moonlight." and now adding "Bat's Belfry" as I read 1926 stories. And now 1931 stories.
August Derleth gives us a work from early in his career - "Bat's Belfry" - in which a British Gentleman buys an ancient home on the lonely moors, one with a bad reputation, and after finding some books in the basement (Dracula, The Inferno by August Strindberg, The Secret Doctrine by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Eureka: A Prose Poem by Edgar Allan Poe & The atmosphere: that which gives life to the earth and by which everything has its being : an ethereal sea that covers the whole world by Camille Flammarion, as well as assorted texts by Mathieu Orfila, Emanuel Swedenborg, Cagliostro & Albert De Rochas) becomes convinced that the former inhabitant practiced occult magic and is now a vampire. Juvenilia, really, poorly constructed (the main character is dead by the halfway point, which then leads into one of those "panic epistolary" endings where he somehow writes down the fact that he is being physically threatened...
Edgar Allan Poe, in the midst of his career and looking for inspiration as he composes "The Premature Burial," does some primary research when he hears that a local woman in Philadelphia was recently rescued from the grave by her husband. Finding no one at home, he goes to beg some money from a friend (and gets only a meager meal for his trouble) but then, on passing the place that night, is called in by the strange woman, who proceeds to reveal a horror in the basement... This is actually pretty neat and well-done. Wellman has done enough research that Poe is neither overly heroic nor presented as a debauched lout - captured at a moment in his life where he had sworn off drinking, his wife was dying, and poverty/starvation stalked at the door - and does a good job integrating the author's bent for the macabre without it seeming forced (more a predilection than an indulgence, in other words). The vampiric aspect of the tale is also nicely singular - the vampire becomes inactive/paralyzed in complete darkness, which leads to a rather well-conceived finale that brings in a classic Poe concept. Enjoyable.
Meanwhile, in the short "The Believer" by Sydney Horler a priest tells of why he believes in vampires, relating a tale of a strangely vibrant man who moved to a small town and found himself ostracized despite his friendliness, as everyone felt there was something odd about him. And then a murder occurred. Too brief (and told on the surface) to really qualify as a "story" (and with a passive ending that involves none of the major characters directly), it's still kind of fun as an oddity.
August Derleth gives us a work from early in his career - "Bat's Belfry" - in which a British Gentleman buys an ancient home on the lonely moors, one with a bad reputation, and after finding some books in the basement (Dracula, The Inferno by August Strindberg, The Secret Doctrine by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Eureka: A Prose Poem by Edgar Allan Poe & The atmosphere: that which gives life to the earth and by which everything has its being : an ethereal sea that covers the whole world by Camille Flammarion, as well as assorted texts by Mathieu Orfila, Emanuel Swedenborg, Cagliostro & Albert De Rochas) becomes convinced that the former inhabitant practiced occult magic and is now a vampire. Juvenilia, really, poorly constructed (the main character is dead by the halfway point, which then leads into one of those "panic epistolary" endings where he somehow writes down the fact that he is being physically threatened...
Edgar Allan Poe, in the midst of his career and looking for inspiration as he composes "The Premature Burial," does some primary research when he hears that a local woman in Philadelphia was recently rescued from the grave by her husband. Finding no one at home, he goes to beg some money from a friend (and gets only a meager meal for his trouble) but then, on passing the place that night, is called in by the strange woman, who proceeds to reveal a horror in the basement... This is actually pretty neat and well-done. Wellman has done enough research that Poe is neither overly heroic nor presented as a debauched lout - captured at a moment in his life where he had sworn off drinking, his wife was dying, and poverty/starvation stalked at the door - and does a good job integrating the author's bent for the macabre without it seeming forced (more a predilection than an indulgence, in other words). The vampiric aspect of the tale is also nicely singular - the vampire becomes inactive/paralyzed in complete darkness, which leads to a rather well-conceived finale that brings in a classic Poe concept. Enjoyable.
Meanwhile, in the short "The Believer" by Sydney Horler a priest tells of why he believes in vampires, relating a tale of a strangely vibrant man who moved to a small town and found himself ostracized despite his friendliness, as everyone felt there was something odd about him. And then a murder occurred. Too brief (and told on the surface) to really qualify as a "story" (and with a passive ending that involves none of the major characters directly), it's still kind of fun as an oddity.
Displaying 1 of 1 review